Estonia

The very old Estonian song tradition – regilaul e. runo song – is mainly monodic, sometimes with the elements of heterophony. Multipart singing can be found only in Southern Estonia, especially in Setumaa (South-East of Estonia). Some examples of two-part drone singing were found in Tartumaa and Võrumaa.

Setu multipart song tradition

Basic facts about the Setus: The Setus (in local dialect – Seto) are a small ethnic group of the Estonians living in South-East Estonia and within the adjoining border territories of Russia (Pskov region). The Setu tongue – a Võru-Setu dialect of Estonian – is now spoken by about 5000 people, and belongs to the Finnic subgroup of the Finno-Ugric languages. Unlike most other Estonians the Setu people are Orthodox. The traditional culture of the Setus differs from the culture of other Estonians also in many other respects.

Functions and Performers: Multipart singing is characteristic to all genres of the Setu traditional songs (work, calendar, wedding, lyrical, lyroepic, game songs) except solo genres (funeral laments, herding songs, lullabies etc.). The song performers are predominantly women. The men songs are mostly of festive character.

Structure: The texture of Setu songs is comprised of two functionally different parts – the lower main part (torrõ in folk terminology) which is sung heterophonically by a chorus, and the upper subsidiary part (killõ) which is sung by a solo voice. The torrõ part repeats, usually with extensions and alternations, the leader’s melody. The killõ’s part functions as an embellishment and moves along the two or three upper degrees of the scale.

There are three principles how the killõ voice can be built: (1) syllabic drone on the upper scale degree with resolutions to the tonic in the ends of the phrases (only in archaic tunes based on one-three-semitone mode[1]); (2) realization of “harmonic rhythm”[2] of the tune on two or three upper scale degrees (in both older and newer tunes); (3) motion in parallel thirds with main melody occurring periodically during the strophe as addition to second principle (mostly in newer diatonic tunes).

Sometimes one of the torrõ singers sings lower tune variations than others. Ethnomusicologists refer to this part as “the lower torrõ”, but there is no special folk term for such a part. In the presence of “the lower torrõ” the texture of Setu songs approaches functional three-part singing with main melody in the middle part.

The contemporary state: Nowadays the multipart singing is one of the most important symbols of ethnic identity of the Setus. Within last decade the growth of ethnic consciousness of the Setus led to revitalization of the old song tradition. There are many singing groups comprised of younger or/and older people who try to keep alive the tradition of multipart singing. Still one should recognize, that the most archaic and original features of Setu song style are disappearing. The essential changes are observed also in performing situations and the ways of transmission of tradition.

Two-part drone singing in Southern Estonia

The origin of examples: The examples of two-part drone singing in Southern Estonia originate from the time period 1877–1912. Among them there are field transcriptions (Aksel August Borenius-Lähteenkorva, August Kiiss) and some phonograph recordings (1912, Väisänen). The transcriptions of all 19 examples are published in Tampere 1938 (1988).

Structure: The main melody locates in the upper part and it is sung by a solo voice (lead singer). Another singers (or one singer) perform syllabic drone on the tonic (mostly the lower scale degree). In the end of the phrases the drone voice may go up or down to the neighbour tone and then back to the tonic.

[1] For more information on the Setu one-three-semitone mode see also Pärtlas 2000, 2006b.
[2] For more information on the “harmonic rhythm” in Setu folk songs see also Pärtlas 2001, 2006a.